It's official now. Many of the pigs and the farmers who raise them in Iowaand Illinois have MRSA.

It was just about six months ago that I reported on preliminary researchdone by Dr. Tara Smith, a significantly dedicated epidemiologist who foundthat pigs at several different Midwest farms had MRSA, as did many of thefarmers raising them.

The reaction to her study and my earlier blog item – which broke the news -was enormous. She was swamped with calls and I got hundreds of email fromhere and abroad. Many came from public health workers – mostly government –praising the efforts of her' and her team at the University of Iowa's Centerfor Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Many of those health professionals, especially several connected with FDA,USDA and CDC, were passionate in their anger that the government was nottaking the presence of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in ourfood supply anywhere near seriously enough.

Some members of Congress expressed outrage and demanded that the federalhealth agencies determine whether Smith's findings in pigs also meant thatpork in our grocery and butcher shop coolers also carried the sometimeslethal bacteria.

So today, Smith's final study was published on PLoS ONE, an online journalfor peer-reviewed scientific and medical research.

It said that Smith and her five students tested 446 pigs and 29 workers frompig farms in Iowa and Illinois and found MRSA in 45 percent of the animalsand in 45 percent of the humans caring for them.

So I called some disease detectives and food safety specialists in agenciesresponsible for ensuring that our food supply is safe. You could almost hearthem cringe over the phone. And, no, to the best of their knowledge, neitherthe FDA, USDA nor CDC had launched systematic testing of the U.S. meatsupply for MRSA. One physician said that a study was being done on the MRSAstrain (ST398) that Smith had found on the pigs but added, "I don't think ithas anything to do with meat."

They did mention that some testing – but far from enough - was being done bythe academic community and gave me the names of researchers at LouisianaState University and the University of Minnesota. I'll try to chase themdown over the weekend.

Next I called staff members of some of the same congressional committeesthat were so upset and promised action last June when Smith's initialresults were released. Two senior people said almost the identical thing"We'll get to it when we get the economy under control." A lawyer on thethird committee said she was embarrassed that nothing had happen, but would"contact Dr. Smith soon."

OK. We'll see.

Smith said her group has a number of ongoing projects examining MRSA in foodand in rural communities, including examining the presence of MRSA on bothconventional and organic farms.

The feds have a large role to play, she says."The studies should be expanded nationwide to examine hundreds of farms inIowa and other swine-farming states and see how common MRSA is on a nationallevel."

But she agrees with many others that a national survey of meat productsshould be conducted and other animals like beef, poultry, lamb and goatshould also be checked out for MRSA.

Smith added that her study just reinforces the importance of vigilance infood handling and cooking procedures.

"It's likely that cooking will kill any MRSA present on the surface ofmeats, but anyone handling raw meats should be careful aboutcross-contamination of cooking areas or other food products, and should makesure hands are washed before touching one's face, nose, lips, etc.," thescientists said.